Fun at the Area Staff Conference

I had a great week at our staff conference! I was the "minute-by-minute" producer of the conference which means that I sat on the front row and make sure that everything stays on schedule. Here's a picture of me at the conference. Next to me is my friend Justin Custer who was the timekeeper and stage manager. There was a team of about 20 of us that help to make the meetings go well. There was a sound and light company that we hired as well as camermen, video guys, and 5 computers. The afternoon before the first meeting, I wanted to have a rehearsal to make sure that we were ready. We needed to practice to make sure that the videos came on when they were supposed to, lighting transitions went smoothly, and tons of other details. The rehearsal went terrible. Just about everything went wrong. We missed every transition and video and there were long pauses while we tried to get things to work. We were all pretty discouraged after it and I figured that having the rehearsal was a big mistake.

I prayed in the next few hours before the meeting that God would make up for our short-comings. It was His conference and without Him we couldn't get it done. That night went off without a hitch and the rest of the week went very smoothly. In fact, I'm not sure we missed a major transiton the whole week. The biggest problem was when it took a couple of seconds to get someone's mic turned on. As I look back on it, I think the bad rehearsal was the best thing that could of happened because it showed how much work there was to be done and how without God's intervention we were in trouble. It was a great time to see God at work!!!